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FRAMED #09 – Creating Screen Characters: From Fiction to Docos

Join us for a fabulous FRAMED #09 line-up as we explore creating characters for the screen for both fiction- and documentary- based projects. Acclaimed writers Hannie Rayson (Hotel Sorrento, Seachange) and Andrew Knight (Spotswood, Seachange, After The Deluge, My Brother Jack) are joined by innovative documentary filmmaking team Jeni McMahon and David Batty of Rebel Films (Halal Mate, Veiled Ambition, Love's Harvest) as they discuss how to 'find' the characters in your story. From Rebel Film's character-driven documentaries, to the sensitive interplay of relationships that has characterised the writing of Hannie Rayson and Andrew Knight, we explore character-development as being at the heart of all good storytelling.

When: Thursday 30 October 2008, 12.30 - 2pm
Where: Digital Harbour Theatrette, 1010 Latrobe St, Docklands
RSVP: framed@openchannel.org.au
FREE

DVDs courtesy of Madman Entertainment to be won!

Speakers

Hannie Rayson, Writer
Hannie Rayson is recognised as one of Australia’s most significant playwrights. Her first major success was Hotel Sorrento, which won several prizes including the Australian Writers Guild Award. She was the joint recipient of the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award in 1996 and has won both the Victorian and NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. Hannie’s work includes the highly acclaimed plays Life After George, Falling from Grace and Competitive Tenderness, as well as TV writing credits including Seachange. Her latest play is Inheritance, a funny, sprawling saga depicting three generations of a farming family as they battle over who’s the rightful heir to the farm.

Andrew Knight, Writer
Andrew has written, produced or executive produced hundreds of hours of television and feature films. In Australia he has received numerous AFI Awards, Logies and other industry and popular awards for writing and producing. His feature films have received international recognition including selection for Critics Week and Rail d’Or Prize at Cannes Film Festival, Best Feature Hawaiian International Film Festival, Winner Korean International Film Festival and Special Jury Prize Verona Film Festival. Andrew’s credits include critically acclaimed mini-series After The Deluge, My Brother Jack and Kangaroo Palace, smash hit and groundbreaking drama series, Seachange, Crashburn and more recently Tripping Over. Among his feature film credits are Siam Sunset and Spotswood and he was responsible for Australia’s highest rating sketch comedy, Fast Forward and its sibling Full Frontal and a driving force behind the seminal D-Generation.

David Batty, Writer/Director
David Batty’s career has spanned 27 years of writing, producing, directing and shooting both documentary and drama throughout most parts of remote Australia and in recent years Melbourne and Sydney. Over the years Batty has carved his own unique style of documentary filmmaking which is vibrant, intimate and rich in detail. The immediacy of his work comes from having a close rapport, trust and great access to often isolated and rarefied communities. He combines local knowledge with great story telling to make television that is fresh, pertinent and thought provoking. Based in Alice Springs for twelve years and then Broome for a further 12 years and now in Melbourne, Batty has a long and distinguished history of making programs with and for Aboriginal people. His filmmaking career began around 1980 in Alice Springs during which time he played an integral part in establishing the television production unit at CAAMA (Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association). The culmination of Batty’s work in Central Australia can be seen in the hit television series, Bush Mechanics, originally screened on ABC TV in 2001 to a national audience of over three million viewers. David’s recent projects include directing two episodes of the popular SBS series Going Bush, shooting and mentoring Veiled Ambition and writing, directing and shooting Australia’s first made for mobile documentary Marree Man. With the series Halal Mate and the one off half hour Desert Heart, and in production with the one hour Wedding Makers for the ABC, 2007 has been a watershed year Rebel Films. Along with producer Jeni McMahon, Batty has now firmly established himself as a significant player in the broader Australian Documentary community.

Jenny McMahon, Producer
From 1998 to 2002 Jeni produced projects that primarily reflected aspects of life in remote Aboriginal Australia. She has a strong connection with this region, having lived at various times in Central Australia, Arnhem Land and the Kimberley. Jeni’s knowledge of outback Australia held her in good stead whilst producing the Bush Mechanics Series in 2000- 2001. Over a period of eighteen months, she drove across the continent more times than she can remember, made countless cups of tea for co-director Francis Jupurulla Kelly, cooked and cleaned for the Bush Mechanics and tolerated heat, dust and floods at Yuendumu. Of her experience she says: “Bush Mechanics has been both the most challenging and exhilarating project I’ve ever been involved with and I’m extremely glad to have survived the experience!” In 2004, after six years of filmmaking throughout regional and outback Australia, Jeni returned to her home town of Melbourne to complete post-production on Inventions from the Shed. She liked it so much she decided to stay and in 2005, Rebel Films established a permanent production base and studio in Brunswick, Melbourne. 2005 saw her return to outback Australia to produce the Going Bush series with Cathy Freeman and Deborah Mailman for SBS and Lonely Planet Television.

About Rebel Films
Born from a union of remote bush experience and the edgy world of film and entertainment Rebel Films has emerged as a key player in the Australian television industry. Established in 1998 by writer/director David Batty and producer Jeni McMahon, Rebel Films produces innovative television for audiences throughout Australia and the international arena. After seven years based in Broome, Rebel Films are now based in Melbourne and have established a position in the industry as an innovative, resourceful and efficient company producing high quality, sought after broadcast content.

Rebel Films mission is to deliver fresh, energetic and entertaining documentaries that celebrate the human spirit. With shameless enthusiasm and a warm sense of humour this irrepressible production team brings to the screen stories and characters that surprise, inspire and continually delight. This is keen spirit, raw and off the edge filmmaking at its best. In 1999 Rebel Films made the all time classic Kimberley cowboy film Rodeo Road. They followed with the Bush Mechanics series (for Film Australia) premiering on ABC TV in 2001. The four episodes screened to a combined audience of over three million viewers and developed a cult following throughout the nation. 2002 saw the creation of Sisters, Pearls & Mission Girls, a poignant historical film which documents the arrival of an order of Irish nuns in the Kimberley in 1907 until the present day, The shared experiences of the Aboriginal people of the North West and the Sisters create a moving story of loss, determination and survival. In 2004 Taylor Made followed the remarkable - and hilarious - exploits of Phil Taylor, a second hand car dealer in the small town of Murwillumbah. In the same year the five part series Inventions from the Shed poked a torch in to the wacky world of the back yard inventor. In 2005, Rebel Films chronicled the experiences of two of Australia’s best-known Aboriginal personalities, Olympic champion Catherine Freeman and actor Deborah Mailman. Going Bush is a rollicking ride that captures the experience of outback indigenous Australia as these two self confessed city girst go bush across the top end of Australia. It’s about discovering our own backyard and at the same time, learning what makes us who we are as Australians. 2006 saw the creation of That's Australia, an exciting new multi-platform series of short documentaries with a focus on Australian life, place and culture. 2007 saw the release of Veiled Ambition, the inspring story of Frida, ,a young Lebanese Australian woman and self confessed “ little Aussie battler in a scarf” and her dream to create a fashion empire. Rebel Films projects have received various awards screened at numerous festivals and are currently distributed by ABC International, Beyond and Film Australia. Recently director Brian McKenzie was nominated for this year's ADG Awards for Rebel Film's latest offering Love's Harvest.
www.rebelfilms.com.au

 

FRAMED 2008 is generously supported by Film Victoria.

Supporting Partner